To talk about Web3, first we need to understand the previous versions of the Internet.

Web1 heralded the dawn of the Internet in 1994. Organizations and individuals went “online” and users gained the ability to send emails.

Web2 launched in 2004 as Facebook shifted the world into mass adoption of “social media”. During this era millions of people used coding languages to build their own websites or engage with the internet using personalized data saved across search engines, social media, and E-commerce.

Web3 began in 2009, with the release of Bitcoin - the most simple yet sophisticated digital currency to gain traction around the globe. Now internet technology has evolved so that users are gaining the ability to own their personal online data directly, interact with others, and handle financial transactions with less intermediaries.

As the third generation of the Internet, Web3 introduces blockchain-based web applications – decentralized networks of peer-to-peer or hybrid web presences that allow for highly composable application development.

“Composable” in this context refers specifically to the ability of software developers to freely access and integrate code from other applications into their own products because the ‘smart contracts’ that control the application logic are open source and available to the public.

The hope is to eliminate the need for developers to “reinvent the wheel”. If an engineer already built something great, you are encouraged to access it, copy it, and use it to write your own software.

While code-sharing services were already available in Web2 through solutions like Github, the advent of smart contracts is rapidly increasing the utility of blockchains and rewarding blockchain contributors every step of the way.

As a spiritual successor to the open source movement, Web3 also unlocks the opportunity for greater innovation at faster speed with better safety.

By moving away from closed-source code, new internet architecture will provide the public with greater data transparency and verifiability which will help prevent large scale breaches and cyberattacks from causing as much damage as they did in the past.

The result? An Internet that is more accessible, private, and secure for users. One that gives users back the control of their identity and personal data.

We invite you to step into this sea-change with us, catch the wave, and innovate with the change.

Curious to read up more? Here’s an introduction we recommend from the World Economic Forum.